In the past, there has been known an apparatus for producing an absorbent which is used for producing an absorbent product, which apparatus for producing an absorbent including a stacking unit which sequentially forms a plurality of stacks and discharges these stacks in a machine direction separated by gaps, a wrapping unit which wraps the stacks which are sequentially discharged from the stacking unit by a wrapping web to thereby form continuous wrapped stacks, a conveying unit which conveys the continuous wrapped stacks in the machine direction, and a cutting unit which cuts the continuous wrapped stacks to form predetermined shapes of absorbents.
Here, the stacking unit for example includes a rotary drum, a plurality of pattern plates which are held at the outer circumferential surface of the rotary drum in a removable state, and a material feeder which feeds the stacking material to the pattern plates (see PTL 1). The shape of pattern plates corresponds to the shape of the stacks which are to be produced. Therefore, by exchanging the pattern plates, it is possible to easily change the shapes of the stacks to be produced.
On the other hand, in the cutting unit, the continuous wrapped stacks are generally cut at the spaces between the adjoining stacks.